Joanie Wind - Decaying Mirages

January 9 - February 6, 2026

Artist Statement

I impregnate my suffering with silliness to the point of intoxication. The characters and objects in my paintings animate an endless interplay of impulse, apathy, and complicity. I grew up in the American Southwest eating fast food, shopping thrift and dollar stores, and watching cartoons. Much of that culture spills onto the canvas, embodying an array of personal quandaries about my relationship to power. Becoming a parent amid ongoing existential threats has intensified the presence of anxiety and moral tension in my work. 

My compositions are influenced by the aesthetics of internet memes, though textured and three-dimensional forms act as enduring reminders of materiality and of life outside the digital realm. I experiment with how seemingly disparate and unrelated words and pictures, when placed side by side, spark the mind’s instinct to search for coherence. This sensemaking reaches a precision and depth unachievable for text or images by themselves.

Artist Bio

Joanie Wind is a Detroit-based video artist and mixed media painter originally from Tucson, Arizona. She holds a BFA in Painting (2010) and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art (2015) from Eastern Michigan University. Wind’s video work has been exhibited widely in national and international venues and has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Best Michigan Filmmaker distinction at the Ann Arbor Film Festival for her recent work Simulacrumbs.
Following a period of concentrated focus on video work following graduate school, Wind has renewed her engagement with painting, developing a new body of mixed-media work. Her painting and video practices are closely intertwined, sharing a humorous sensibility and a maximalist approach to layering imagery and materials.

​Wind currently resides in Detroit, where she teaches at the College for Creative Studies.

Joanie Wind - Decaying Mirages


Inventory

1.  Good Luck, Kid, acrylic, foam rope, sand, beads and leather cord on panel, 24”x16”, $1,000
2.  Bodies, acrylic, found toys, recycled textile insulation, picture frame, and puffy paint on panel, 30 ½” x 19”, $1,000
3.  You Are The Universe Experiencing Itself, acrylic, chalk pastel, colored pencil, knit beanie, and glitter on panel, 31” x 19”, $1,000
4.  Yearning, acrylic, polymer clay, altered plastic toy, zip ties, pill organizer, foil, packing foam, and vintage puzzle on panel, 28” x 19”, $1,000
5.  Where Credit's Due, acrylic, recycled textile insulation, chalk pastel, and foam on panel, 30 ½” x 19”, $1,000
6.  Mother Nature, acrylic, glitter, foam toys, foam letters on panel, 24” x 16”, $1,000
7.  Affordable Prices, acrylic, foam, Brillo pad, collaged paper, toothpicks on panel, 24” x 16”, $1,000
8.  Distrust, acrylic, oil, charcoal, rope, glitter, silicone, and cast plastic on panel, 51” x 26”, $2,000
9.  I Am the Product (Cash Cow), acrylic, oil, charcoal, glitter, sand, silicone, foam head, and cast plastic on panel, 51” x 26”, $2,000
10.  Battery Lives, acrylic, oil, glitter, silicone, and found objects on panel, 51”x26”, $2,000
11.  Boots to the Fire, acrylic, oil, charcoal, rope, glitter, denim, yarn, rubber bands, and foam letters on panel, 51” x 26”, $2,000
12.  I Love Pizza, acrylic, recycled textile insulation, mesh tube ribbon, and foam toy on panel, 27 ½” x 18 ¾”, $1,000
13.  Big Gulp, acrylic, chalk pastel, puffy paint, and mesh tubing on panel, 30½”x19”, $1,000
14.  More, acrylic, textile cord, sand, and chalk pastel on panel, 30 ½” x 19”, $1,000